Here are four placements woven on the same warp. Three are variations of huck lace and the fourth is plain weave.
This pattern caught my fancy from the beginning. The placemats looks so elegant. Not everyone uses placemats, but I have a friend who does. She has a beautiful, long, dark brown wood table and sets it with placements for every meal. In my mind, I saw these placements with brown and black edges to compliment the table and natural color centers to show off the lovely weave structure.
I used a spreadsheet to design the color scheme. I had some of the natural 3/2 cotton but had to order the cones of black and brown. I didn’t have any color samples so I relied on the web site images to chose.
The brown was a little darker than I thought but I used it anyway. It is so dark that it is hard to distinguish from the black, especially in pictures. But it does show up a little better in real life.
The instructions are for four placemats and I wanted to make eight. After a bit of calculating and a bit of over-caution I measured an eight yard warp – one of the longest I have ever handled.
I actually had some of the natural and black colors in my stash but wasn’t quite sure it would be enough. So I ordered extra of each along with the brown. I’m really glad I did because something bad happened while I was warping. After measuring the warp and threading the reed and heddles (warping front to back) I started to tie bundles to the back apron rod. As I pulled the knots tight on the black thread the bundle broke off! Upon further investigation I discovered that ALL of the black thread was weak and falling apart. Black fuzz was spreading to the whole warp. Fortunately, the black warp was confined to the very edges. So I pulled out the black warp threads and threw them away then measured new ones from the new cone. I’m glad I discovered the issue when I did. The cotton thread is quite old, likely 20 years or so. I wonder what could have happened to it.
I planned to weave two of each of the huck patterns and two plain weave, for a total of eight and I couldn’t wait to see what each pattern looked like. This is “huck lace” patterns.
At each end of the placemats I wove 8 brown rows, 20 black rows, and then 4 rows with black sewing thread so that the hem, when turned under and sewn, did not have as much bulk. In between each mat I wove two rows of gold thread to create a space and delineate the mats.
This is the “huck squares” pattern. It looks much different after washing.
Although the threading is the same for all four patterns, the treadling is not. So I made this card and clipped it to the loom as a reminder.
With such a long warp, the cloth beam got pretty full.
I had planned to make eight placemats but in the end was able to make eleven before I ran out of warp.
The gold yarn woven between each mat spaced them apart. When the yarn was pulled out, it left a gap so that the woven thread could be zigzagged in place on the sewing machine.
I stitched the edges of each mat (22 edges!) and left them together as I washed and dried them. After they were dry, I cut them apart, folded the hem under a half-inch twice, and sewed the hem using a straight stitch.
This is the “huck boxes” pattern.
I like the way the placemats turned out. By the time I got done with eleven of them I was a bit tired of starting and stopping colors for stripes. I think next time I will make them a single color. I think the dark brown would look awesome. These huck patterns are beautiful and I will use them for other items in the future.
The pattern is available for free from Interweave.
I hope you like the placemats. As always, your polite and helpful comments are welcome.
Knitting, Weaving, Writing 